A Public Reality for Women in Biotech Boardrooms

The business imperatives for boardroom diversity are slowly becoming understood by those serving on boards, as well as those who evaluate and scrutinise boards. The scrutiny that companies face increases significantly as private companies go public. The transition from a private to publicly listed company brings great opportunities, as well as risks and different challenges, all of which place additional demands on the board. The board of directors which oversees this shift of strategic
landscape must itself evolve, to reflect the future needs of the company. This important transition opens the door to propagate a highly diverse slate of new board directors and to be rewarded with the full advantages this brings.

This report, A Public Reality for Women in Biotech Boardrooms, details a study of 177 biotech companies which conducted an Initial Public Offering (IPO) between 2012 and 2015. It assesses whether companies take advantage of the benefits of a well constituted and diverse board during the transition from private to public, as well as in their early years as a public company. It focuses on the representation of women on these boards, with the express intent of measuring the
level and trajectory of gender diversity.

Specifically, Liftstream looked at pre- and post-IPO board composition and tracked the rate of board director replacements, analysing the sustainability of gender diversity in this context. Additionally, we evaluated the corporate governance structure of the newly listed public companies and studied its link with boardroom diversity. Moreover, we examined the level of gender diversity among the Venture Capitalists serving on biotech boards, and VC’s impact on the process of
diversification of these boards. Furthermore, we scrutinised board committees and looked at whether boards integrate women directors in a way that discharges diverse talent and its capabilities. Attempting to demonstrate a clear link between gender diversity in the boardroom and financial performance, we tracked the share price performance of all the public biotech companies studied. Finally, based on our observations, we predicted how long it would take to reach 30% as well as 50% of women
directors in the boardrooms of the biotech companies studied.